Valve for pneumatic musical instruments.



No. 698,905. Patented Apr. 29, I902.

M. CLARK.

VALVE FOR PNEUMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

7 (Application filed July 23, 1901.) (No Model.)-

M, I iBMeZvz'ZZe IYZQTZ}. 7 16 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

MELVILLE CLARK, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

VAL,VE FOR PNEUMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 698,905, dated April29, 1902.

Application filed July 23, 1901. Serial No. 69,349. (No model.)

. To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MELVILLE CLARK, a citi- Zen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Valves for PneumaticMusical Instruments; I and I do hereby declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact descrip-- tion of the invention, such as willenable oth; ers skilled in the art to which it appertaius to make anduse the same.

This invention relates to valves for pneuw inatic musical instruments,and more especially to puppet-valves employed in connection with thattype of instruments for which I obtained Letters Patent onIt-he 30th dayof October, 1900, No. 660,560. .Heretofore great difficulty has beenexperiencedin causing the valves employed in such instruments toseatthemselves accurately and satisfactorily un less great skill,painstakingcare, and-time be employed in constructingandfitting saidvalves; and it is the purpose of my invention to provide valves of thenature referredto that will be simple, can be manufactured cheaply andexpeditiously, and which will accurately and closely seat themselvesunder all circumstances, so as to effectually preclude any leakage ofair past said Valves.

, To these ends my invention consists in the features and in theconstruction and arrangement of parts hereinafterdescribed, andparticularly pointed out in the claims following the description,reference beinghad to: the accompanying drawings, forming apart of thisspecification, whereinp V Figure 1 is asectional viewof a part of apneumatic musical instrument, showing my. improved valve appliedthereto. Fig. 2 is a central sectional view of my improved valve. Fig. 3is a view in side elevation thereof, and Fig. lis asectional viewillustrating a modi-i fication. v

Inorder that my invention may be clearly understood, I will firstbriefly describe a part of a pneumatic musical instrument, showing myimproved valve applied thereto.

- Referring to the drawings, the numeral 1 indicates-the Wind-chest of apneumatic musical instrument; 2, one of the primary pneumatics arrangedtherein and actuating the same shape and diameter as the button.

valve for controlling the communication be- 1 tween the wind-chest andthe channel leading to the motor-pneumatic; 3, the channel lead ing tothe tracker-board; 4, the channel leading to the motor-pneumatic, (notshown;) 5, the port through which the motor-pneumatic channelcommunicates with the wind-chest; 6, the port arranged oppositethe port5 and leading tothe atmosphere; 7,. the bellowsopening in thewind-chest; 8, an arm rigidly fastened to the movable wall of theprimary pneumatic; 9, a guide-rod fixed in the wind-chest and looselypassing through the free end ofthe arm 8, and the numeral 10 indicatesgenerally my improved valve which controls the channel leading tomotor-pneumatic. The end of the motor-pneumatic channel is enlarged, asat 11, between the ports 5 and 6 to form a valve-chamber for the valve.All the parts above referred to, excepting my improved valve, are wellknown to those skilled in the art and need not be herein described indetail.

As in my patented device hereinbefore referred to, the valve is rigidlysecured to a movable wall of the primary pneumatic, and

it is the purpose of the present invention to through, the inner side ofthe button. Formed centrally in the bottom of the countersink or mortiseis a perforation 14, that extends entirely through the button. Arrangedon the innerside of the vbutton is a'disk or'cushion 15, of felt orsimilar yielding material,-of the The feltdisk is held in place on thebutton by a covering 16, of thin leather or the like, which extends overthe face of the disk and over its edge or sides, the edge of said coverbeing serrated, as at 17, and attached to the sides of the button bycement or other suitable fastening means. The thin leather covering notonly serves as a means for holding the felt disk to the face of thebutton, but also serves as an impervious facing for the valve, that willeffect a tight closure of the valve on its seat and effectually preventanyleakage of air past the valve. Passing through the button, felt disk,and the leather covering is a screw 18, that is screwed into the arm 8,carried by the movable wall of the primary pneumatic, and into saidmovable wall and forms a rigid support or stem for the valve. Theperforation 14 in the button is of such diameter relatively to the screwthat the button has a free universal oscillatory movement on thescrewthat is to say, the button is free to assume an angular position onthe screw in any directionand inasmuch as the felt disk and thin leathercovering are of yielding material it will be obvious that the entirevalve may readily assume any position relatively to the screw in anydirection, so that when the valve moves to close the port 5 it willautomatically accommodate itself to its seat and accurately contactitself with every part thereof. A small washer 19, preferably of leatheror similarmateriahis screwed upon the screw and against the leathercovering 16. The washer 19 performs a twofold function. It serves toprevent anyleakage of air through the leather covering or the felt diskabout the screw, and it also serves to hold the valve in place on thescrew, and by pressing against the leather covering and felt disk attheir centers maintains the cushion part of the valve in shape. It willbe noted that the ports 5 and 6 are arranged opposite one another, andthe head of the screw lies in the countersink or mortise 13. Hence thescrew is always readily accessible from the exterior of the wind-chest,so that it may be conveniently turned to adjust the valve relatively tothe movable wall of the primary pneumatic.

The operation of my improved valve will be readily understood by thoseskilled in the art. A vacuum is constantly maintained in the wind-chest,and aslongas the channel leading from the primary pneumatic to thetrackerboard is kept closed by the paper music-sheet in the usual mannerthe primary pneumatic will be collapsed and the valve thereby held toits seat about the port 5, thus shutting off the communication betweenthe motor-pneumatic channel and the wind-chest and putting said channelinto communication with the atmosphere through the port 6. XVhen,however, one of the perforations in the music-sheet operates to vent theprimary pneumatic through the channel leading to the tracker-board, theprimary pneumatic expands under atmospheric pressure and forces thevalve away from the port 5 and against its seat about the port (5,thereby establishing communication between the motor-pneumatic channeland the wind-chest through the port 5. As before stated, the screw isreadily accessible from the exterior of the wind-chest in order that thevalve may be readily adjusted, and said adjusting-screw forms a stem forthe valve, that supports and carries the latter.

If desired, a flexible or yielding washer 20 may be fixed to the outerside of the button 12 (see Fig. at) for the purpose of forming anair-tight junction between the valve and its seat about the port 0 andfor the further purpose of rendering the action of the valve noiseless;but such washer is not absolutely indispensable.

WVhile I have shown my improved valve arranged in connection with apneumatic musical-instrument player of the type shown in my said LettersPatent hereinbefore recited, it will be manifest that it may also beemployed in connection with other types of such devices.

In the construction shown in, the drawings it will be seen that themovable wall of the primary pneumatic 2 is flexibly connected to thebase or fixed wall. Hence it will be seen that said movable wall is freeto rock or move laterally in all directions and constitutes substantially a universal connection for the stem that carries the valve,and this arrangement, together with the peculiar mounting of the valveitself upon the stem, permits of said valve making a close and perfectseating at all times without any liability of the valve sliding overwhatever point of its face first strikes the valve-seat to bring theentire face of the valve to its seat.

Having described my invention, what I claim is 1. A valve for pneumaticmusical instruments comprising a button of non-yielding material havinga centrally-arranged opening therethrough, a stem of less diameter thanthe smallest diameter of said opening passing loosely through thelatter, a valve-seat of yielding material on one face of the button, andmeans acting uponopposite sides of the valve for preventing anyappreciable longitudinal movement thereof relatively to the stem, thearrangement being such that the valve may have a universal angularmovement on the stem, for the purpose specified.

2. A valve for pneumatic musical instruments comprising acentrally-apertured button of non-yielding material, a stem of lessdiameter than said aperture passing freely therethrough, a valve-seat ofyielding material on one face of the button, and a flexible connectionbetween said valve-seat and button, the arrangement being such that thevalve will have a universal angular movement on the stem.

A valve for pneumatic musical instruments comprising acentrally-apertured button of non-yielding material, a stem of lessdiameter than said opening passing freely therethrough, a valve-seat ofyielding mate" rial on one face of the button, and a flexible coverinclosing the valve-seat and having a connection with the button.

4. A valve for pneumatic musical instruments comprising a stem, avalve-body loosely mounted on the stem and universally movable angularlyrelatively to the stem, and means carried by the stem and acting uponopposite faces of the valve to prevent the latter from movinglongitudinally on the stem, for the purpose specified.

5. A valve for pneumatic musical instruments comprising a stem, avalve-body mounted loosely on the stem and universally movable angularlyrelatively to the stem, a flexible valve-seat disposed on one face ofthe valve-body, and means carried by the stem and acting upon oppositesides of the valvebody for preventing the latter from movinglongitudinally on the stem, substantially as specified.

6. In apneumatic musical, instrument, the combination with a primarypneumatic whose movable wall is flexibly attached to its support, of avalve-stem secured to said movable wall, a valve loosely mounted on thestem and universallymovable angularly relatively to the stem, and meanscarried by the stem acting upon opposite sides of the valve to preventthe latter from moving longitudinally on the stem, the arrangement beingsuch that the valve is free to rock on its stem when it engages thevalve-seat, without'sliding over whatever point of its face firststrikes the seat, whereby the entire face of the valve is squarelyseated.

7. A valve for pneumatic musical vinstruments comprising a button ofnon-yielding material provided centrally on one side with a countersinkand centrally perforated, a screw of less diameterthan said perforationpassing through the latter, the head of the screw being seated in thesaid countersink, means for yieldingly connecting the button to thescrew so that it will be capable of moving freely thereon in an angulardirection relatively to the stem, and means for preventing the buttonfrom moving longitudinally on the stem,

substantially as described.

8. A Valve for pneumatic musical instruments, comprising a valve-stem, abutton mounted on the stem and freely movable in anangular directionrelatively thereto,-a

. ton, and a flexible cover extending over the face of the disk and thesides of the disk and button and attached to the latter, substantiallyas described.

10. A valve for pneumatic musical instruments, comprising a valve-stem,a button mounted on the stem and freely movable in an angular directionrelatively thereto, a yielding disk disposed on the face of the button,and a flexible cover extending over the face of the disk and the sidesof the disk and button, said cover having a serrated edge portioncemented to the sides of the button, sub stantially as described.

11. A valve for pneumatic musical instru ments, comprising an adjusting-screw, arigi button provided centrally with a perforation largerthan the screw through which the latter passes whereby the button isfreely movable on the screw in an angular direction relatively to thelatter,'a yielding disk disposed on the face of the button, a flexiblecover extending over the face and sides of the disk and attached to thesides of the button, and a washer extending over the face andsides ofthe disk.

and cemented to the sides of the button, and a relatively small washerscrewed upon the screw against the leather cover, substantially asdescribed.

13. A valve for pneumatic musical instruments, comprising a cylindricalwooden button provided centrally on one side with a coun'-- tersink andcentrally perforated, a felt disk disposed on the other side of thebutton, a thin leather cover-extending over the face and sides of thedisk and cemented to the sides of the button, a screw of less diameterthan the said perforation and passing through the latter,the disk andthe cover, whereby the valve is freely movable 0n thescrew in an angulardirection relatively to the latter, and a relatively small leatherwasher screwed upon the screw against the said cover, the head of thescrew being seated in .the said countersink, substantially as described.

14. A valve for pneumaticmusical instruments, comprising a valve-stem, abutton yieldingly connected to the stem and freely movable in anangular. direction relatively thereto, said button beingcushioned on itsopposite faces, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof 'I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

MELVILLE CLARK. Witnesses: J. E. BUOKLEY,

- HIRAM I-I. BRADLEY.

